Chapter Three

I wake up and I can hear my phone alarm blaring on my nightstand. I groan as I get up and switch it off, I can't believe it's Monday already. I quickly get ready and head to work, on my way I contemplate my weekend. All I did was laze around the apartment, watch anime and eat junk food, at least yesterday I washed my hair and tided the apartment abit.

As I walk into the firm's lobby I see David kissing yet another conquest up against the wall. I cringe as I walk past them to the elevators, my phobia has gotten a bit better, but if too many people were on the elevator I think I would have taken the stairs. I get in and head straight to my cubical, I haven't seen Alka yet so my guessing is she hasn't arrived yet.

I am excited for this week, we are going to observe our supervising attorney in court. Each attorney can only take two of us at a time, I'm with David...kill me now. I don't know what it is but something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way. As I begin starting up my computer, I see Geraldine walk in, she walks over to me and greets me. We still aren't friends at this point I don't think we will ever be but she is a good colleague so I don't mind her presence. She walks to her cubical which is behind mine and starts talking about her weekend. I am really not interested but I try to avoid being rude to people unless I absolutely have to, so I "mhmm" and "aha" in the approriate places mainly letting her continue.

I hear the elevator ding and pray its Alka, and the heavens must be smiling down on me because I see her strolling to the cubicals. I get up and give her a hug, she is surprised but hugs me back. She gives me a funny look and I tell her I'm starving and have to go to the cafeteria now. I grab her wrist as we head back towards the elevators, once inside she laughs at me, "Geraldine?", she asks I nod, she continues laughing at me and I just roll my eyes.

We get off the elevator and head to the coffee bar, while waiting for our order, I see a white guy sitting in our usual spot. I nudge Alka and point to him, "So?", she asks, "it's a table with four chairs and there are other free tables." I respond by telling her that I like our spot and don't want to share it with anyone else, but she just grins at me and says, "be nice". I feign offence and ask, " aren't I always?", she scoffs as our names are called and I take my hot chocolate and muffin, and walk towards our table.

I sit down next to the guy, opposite the window, where I usually sit, I love the view from the window, looking at the city below. " Hi, I'm Karen and you are?" Looking straight at him, he lifts his head of ginger hair and faces me with his dark green eyes. He has freckles all over his face, Damn! he looks cute. I wait for him to answer me as Alka sits down next to me, he notices her as well and then replies, " I'm Fredrick, Fred for short." "I'm Alka", she introduces herself giving a short wave. "I haven't seen you here before, do you work in this building?", "Yeah, I'm an actuary", "Oh, really...".

There goes Alka, my social butterfly, I love her for it though, this is how she always gets the office gossip. I've tuned them out as I am enjoying muffin while it's still warm, we have ten minutes before we have to get back to work. "...David", "What about David?", I ask, "Oh, Fred was just telling me that his brother David works at the law firm". I look at him surprised and pat his hand, "you poor soul, I don't know how you've survived all this time with that over inflated ego of his sucking up all the oxygen in the room." He laughs, rubbing the back of his neck " yeah, he is something". I think he is a bot shy he hasn't looked up at me since we started talking, "tell me does anyone actually call you Fredrick or Rick?", I ask, he fiddles with his hands and responds "no it's usually Fred or Freddie", I nod, I tell him we have to leave and we will see him around.

Alka follows me to the elevator and I just look at her, she feigns innocence and asks "what?", " Don't what me, we are not social welfare taking in strays and people with no friends, you're not as slick as you think, you know that." She laughs looking at me in shock, "you're so mean! I was just being nice and making conversation, I never said anything about adopting him"." See but you've thought about it, get it out of your head, its bad enough Geraldine thinks I'm her BFF, since we're the only girls in our group."

The elevator dings and we go back to our cubicals, today is filled with reafing and research prep for court. By the time it's lunch, I am starving.

Alka and I sit in our cubicals since it can get crowded in the cafeteria aroumd lunch time. We share her lunch, talk about parents that love you. "So, outside thinking he is a stray...what do you think of Fred?", "what are you fishing for exactly?", I give hee my distrustful look, she holds her hands up in surrender, "nothing, I swear I just want to know your impression of him", " mhmm, I don't believe you but fine, I think he's shy, probably has little to no friends, he is smart and I can't believe he is related to David.", she nods as I hear " Did someone meantion my name?", I roll my eyes and reply "speak the devil's name and he will appear", Alka stifles a laugh, "in the flesh".

I turn and give him a fake smile "Cute, Alka and I were just talking about how hot your brother is and how we couldn't believe the lack of family resemblance between you two", "Argh please, don't compare me to that pansy, and he is only my half brother." "Well that explains a lot, I doubt he is a pansy I think you're just a gorilla that needs to be caged", he then leans in towards me and says "Is that an offer sweetcheeks?", "touch me and I'll make sure your never able to reproduce", as I push him away from me. He laughs and begins to walk away, "I know when I'm not wanted", "argh disgusting ape, at least he isn't completely oblivous."

Alka looks at me and with her eyebrow raised, "Mhmm, I can't wait to hear more about how hot Fred is", I roll my eyes as she starts laughing. "Mxm, get back to work", as I walk back to my cubical. The rest of the day goes fast and soon I'm back in my apartment. I take off my heels and text Alka that I got home safe. I bought KFC for dinner and I reheat it in the microwave and dig in. I wonder if he really doesn't have any friends, I'm not the friendliest person but even I always have at least one friend.

I wash up my dishes and head to bed, "Keep your head down and keep moving forward." It's my reminder to stay out of other peoples business and don't get destracted by other peoples problems.